Universal joint shafts are used in various technical areas, such as in passenger motor vehicles, trucks, landborne vehicles and construction and earthmoving machines, and serve to transmit torques at a defined deflection angle. In these machines and vehicles, the universal joint bushes of the universal joints are subjected to external influences such as dust, water, sand and mud. If the universal joint bushes of the universal joint which are configured as precision bearings are not sealed sufficiently, premature failure of the bearing and therefore of the universal joint shaft can occur. In order to exchange the universal joint bushes and/or the universal joint, relatively extensive assembly outlay is required, in association with a disadvantageous downtime of the machine.
A universal joint bush of the design type which is described in the above text is known, for example, from DE 41 28 179 A1. In order to seal the annular gap between the journal of the universal joint and the universal joint bush, the known solution has a sealing arrangement which comprises two sealing rings. Here, a first sealing element which is configured as a radial shaft sealing ring is pressed into the universal joint bush at the open end. Furthermore, the sealing arrangement comprises a sealing ring which is fixed in terms of rotation on the journal of the universal joint, covers the end side of the universal joint bush and simultaneously engages with a rim into a stepped, end-side region of the universal joint bush and engages into an annular groove by means of a sealing lip. This known sealing arrangement, the sealing rings of which have reinforcements in a coinciding manner, causes high manufacturing costs and requires great assembly expenditure and an increased axial installation space at least in the axial direction.